To start us off on the right foot here, the most important things that you should know before going protection as a paladin are the following:

1. Vanilla Prot paladins will NEVER be able to suitably fill the role of a prot MT warrior. There are too few abilities and talents for protection paladins that can substitute for a warrior's Shield Wall, Defensive Stance, and other powerful tanking abilities.

2. 'With enough thrust, even a pig can fly fine'. Similarly, with enough heals, even a paladin/warlock/mage can tank, although you'll probably be making your healers sweat and curse your name under their breath since a warrior tank could easily do the job better than you.

3. There are extremely few items in Vanilla WoW specifically made for paladin tanking, and even then, you'll probably only be able to effectively tank as a paladin with raid gear from BWL+ raid instances.

Even if you are able to gear a protection paladin with off-set warrior tanking gear for MT'ing, you will have serious issues tanking as virtually no viable tanking gear has Spellpower for building threat, MP5 for sustaining mana regen, or intellect for having a higher mana pool and spell crit.

You'll ultimately be limited to only being able to effectively tank up to 20-man instances such as ZG and AQ20, although that might just be pushing it. However, Prot paladin tanks shine and easily excel against Prot warriors in 5-man instances such as Scholomance, Stratholme, and even 20-man raids such as Zul Gurub (provided that you’re decently geared to tank), all of which have very dense mobs in which you can utilize a protection paladin's AoE tanking abilities to their full potential.

Fun fact: Prot pallies are great for 25-minute Scholo and 20-minute Strath full clear speedruns

TALENTS:

Click the image if you want to look at the interactive talent tree on the VG Database. Holy:Divine IntellectSince protection paladins are pretty big mana hogs because of spamming Consecration and Holy Shield, the extra mana you get from this talent is pretty useful to have.

Improved Seal of RighteousnessThis can be useful for improving your threat generation when attacking single targets using the Seal of Rigtheousness buff, along with the judgement.

ConsecrationThis is an essential talent to invest a point in in order to unlock the Consecration ability.

Protection:RedoubtThis is probably one of the more controversial talents to have since most people think it’s useless due to having to get crit by mobs in order to proc this ability, but in reality, this talent can synergize amazingly with tanking large mobs (albeit pretty useless to have for powerful single enemies such as bosses). I decided to invest points into this talent since it’ll be pretty much impossible to become defense capped as an AoE tankadin without gimping your other stats at the start so you’ll usually be hit for crits anyways. This can greatly optimize the use of your Holy Shield ability, Blessing of Sanctuary buff, and help land more Force Reactive Disk procs. I’ll elaborate more on how to utilize this talent to its full potential in the strategies section.

Shield SpecializationLike I said earlier, you’ll block a lot more using Redoubt passive procs and Holy Shield ability so you might as well spent points on this talent to dissipate more damage from blocks, improving survivability.

Retribution:BenedictionSince paladins are huge mana hogs, it helps to conserve some mana on some of those seals that you use.

Improved Seal of the CrusaderOptional. I prefer to put full points into this talent since this means I can build more threat on single targets with the Judge of the Crusader debuff. Put those infidels in their place.

DeflectionOptional. It doesn't hurt to invest 1 or 2 points into this talent since it can slightly improve survivability in the long-term, but it's ultimately up to what you want.

Improved JudgementOptional. If you like casting Judgements a bunch and don't like waiting the full 10 seconds, this is for you. I don't really put points into this talent personally because that'll just incentivize me to use Judgements more often for my seals which could make me use up more mana than I have to to keep aggro on mobs.

ABILITIES:

This is the arsenal of abilities at your disposal for tanking.

CONSECRATIONTHIS brings all the boys to the yard. THIS is what justifies the pathetic existence of tankadins. In conjunction with Righteous Fury, this generates an insane of threat to all targets around you and will make you #1 aggro whore in dungeons with large mobs that rivals that of a Thunderfury warrior.

Righteous FuryThis is one of the cornerstone abilities of tankadins; it turns you into a threat and chick magnet. Improved Righteous Fury is an absolutely necessary talent to have to improve threat generation.

Holy ShieldSometimes your best offense is your best defense. This is useful to activate in large mobs since it'll improve your survivability while also being able to dish back some damage at them.

Seal of the CrusaderApply directly to infidels. Using this ability by itself isn't that useful, but the debuff that you apply on enemy using Judgement makes this a great tool in your arsenal for generating large amounts of threat on single targets. Use in sync with other holy abilities such as Seal of Rigtheousness, Consecrate, and Holy Shield.

Seal of RighteousnessContains Whataburger Seal of Approval. This is great as a buff for you in order to increase threat on targets, especially those with Judgement of the Crusader debuff, but this is also useful to use with Judgement as it can give a nice burst of holy damage on single targets, acting sort of like a taunt if you lose aggro on them.

Greater Blessing of WisdomThis is a useful buff for YOU to cast on fellow mana hogs, as this ability helps generate consistent threat at all times, which can make the first 5 seconds of pulls very hassle-free since you'll usually get aggro instead of healers at the start and they'll come to you.

Greater Blessing of SanctuaryExcellent supplement for Holy Shield and similar mechanic. Will make your offensive defense even stronger, like a turtle with spikes. If I have more than one paladin in my group, I prefer to have them cast this bless on me.

Devotion AuraVery useful aura to have activated at all times for maximum longetivity when taking dozens of blows from mobs.

Retribution AuraSupplementary threat building if you use this talent, but only if you're willing to go without that extra armor from devotion aura.

Divine Shield Bubble boy time! This ability can be useful when you’re pulling mobs that deal lots of damage, like the Jindo trolls packs.

Holy Wrath Skeletons in your closet? Get back at them with this powerful skill that nukes all undead around you! Useful in Scholomance and Stratholme. Synergizes well with Divine Shield for snackbar pulls.

Exorcism Useful single target ability against the undead that can help you regain aggro of undead adds if you lose aggro. Useful in Scholomance and Stratholme.

Hammer of Wrath FINISH HIM! Useful to finish off any adds that run away from you at low health. Having some spellpower can improve your chances that you’ll take down your target.

Hammer of Justice This is a very useful ability to have for crowd control, in case an add breaks loose and starts attacking your healer or something like that. I’d recommend using a Judgement of Righteousness on the stunned add to try to regain aggro once the stun is done.

GEARING:Stats to consider:The key stats that can help determine your effectiveness as an AoE tankadin (asides from skill), are the following:StaminaThe more stamina you have, the more HP you have, therefore you can a beating for longer time. Aim for at least 4.5k HP.DefenseHigher defense means lower chance of being critically hit by enemies. Aim for at least 60 Defense.ArmorReduces damage taken. No more clothadins from this point on. Devotion aura can give you some extra armor. Aim for at least 8k armor.IntellectSince paladins are mana hogs, especially when tanking, it’s useful to have a sizable mana pool. Aim to have at least 3 to 3.5k mana from intellect bonus.Mana Regeneration (MP5)Sometimes your mana pool isn’t big enough, so having some mana regen is nice to avoid going OOM in middle of engagements. Aim to have at least 20 MP5. The more the merrier.Spell DamageSince the damage of holy spell abilities depend on spell power, and these abilities are your main sources of threat generation, it is essential to have a respectable amount of spell damage if you want to keep fellow party members from stealing agro. Aim to have at least 50 SP, but it definitely helps if you have over 150 SP at which it’s almost impossible for you to lose adds on large mobs to mage and warlock AoE.% Dodge/ % Block/ Block Value/ % ParryHaving a culmination of these stats help your survivability in engagements, and since you’re dealing with getting hit a bunch by large mobs, this will be important. Get as much of it as you can, especially %Block.

Pre-raid Best in SlotSince I'm assuming that it'll mostly be new people reading this guide who want to get a feel for how to use a protection paladin, I'll start off with listing an ideal set-up for a pre-raid protection paladin. All of these items can be acquired from instances up to and including Upper Blackrock Spire. A few exceptions here and there for things that are BoE from AQ20 and ZG.With this recommended pre-raid BiS set, you’ll have a decent amount of mana regeneration, stamina, and defense, which are important stats to have as an AoE tankadin. If you have time or means to do so, you can mix and match some of the recommended pieces with pieces from the paladin Dungeon Tier 2 set, the Soulforge Armor, usually for extra spell power in order to improve threat generation from holy spells.

Shoulders:Stockade PauldronsRandom Drop level 50+ world mobs, but can usually be bought in Auction House.ORPolished Obsidian PauldronsRandom drop for AQ20 trash mobs, but can also usually be found in Auction House.Author's Note: Looks cooler with full Deathbone than the ugly-looking Stockade shoulders.Recommended Enchant: +18 Spell Damage/Healing from Zul Gurub (Must be Exalted with the Zandalar)

Chest: Deathbone Chestplate Drop from the 6-Pack bosses in ScholomanceRecommended Enchant: +100 HP or +4 Stats from an enchanter (hit me up yo)

Trinkets:Choose any 2 of the 4 trinkets listed. I tend to switch between any of these trinkets on my paladin depending on the situation. Mark of TyrannyReward from quest General Drakkisath's Demise for killing General Drakkisath in Upper Blackrock Spire.Very nice combination of armor and dodge.Vigilance CharmDrops from Immol'Thar in Dire Maul West.Good dodge for encounters where you want to avoid being hit a lot. (Looking at you Prince Fuckface)Force of WillDrops from General Angerforge in Blackrock Depths.Extremely highly recommended tanking large mobs, usually 5 or more.Mindtap TalismanDrops from Magister Kalendris in Dire Maul West.Very useful for long term engagements for mana sustainability. Can't run on empty!

Main Hand:Really, any main hand weapon will do as long as it has a decent amount of stamina or defense. There aren't that many pre-raid weapons that fit well with protection paladins.

SagebladeCan be made by Swordsmiths.The spell damage is useful for getting more threat from your abilities, plus the +14 stam adds some bulk.Recommended Enchant: +30 Spell Damage (faster threat generation) or +22 Intellect (larger mana pool).OREnergetic RodDrops from Alzzin the Wildshaper in Dire Maul East. Welfare version of Sageblade if you don't have the gold for it.

Off Hand:Draconian DeflectorDrops from General Drakkisath in Upper Blackrock Spire.OR.........Force Reactive DiskForce Reactive DiskForce Reactive DiskForce Reactive DiskForce Reactive DiskMade by engineers, for engineers, and requires 300 engineering to equip. Did I forget to mention Force Reactive Disk?Hell, always carry a second Force Reactive Disk with you!Although this requires a fair amount of time and gold to acquire, this shield is the cornerstone of being an effective protection paladin tank. You'll be pretty much be shooting lightning out your arse like William Wallace with this shield. This is as close as you’ll to being able to pretend that you’re a Thunderfury tank. The proc from this shield synergizes beautifully with the paladin's Holy Shield ability and the Redoubt passive talent. Since each proc of the shield has a chance of taking one durability point from it, if you're tanking large groups of mobs, this can wear down your shield pretty fast so I’d highly recommend always having a second one of these puppies on you if you can afford it.

Libram:Libram of FervorRandom drop from elite trash mobs in Scholomance and Stratholme.Very useful for building threat on single targets with Judgement of the Crusader ability.

Beyond Pre-Raid BiSIf you're past the point of being pre-raid BiS geared as an AoE tankadin, then you're probably already in a guild that's regularly raiding Blackwing Lair and other 40-man raid dungeons. Since raids have no need for AoE paladin tanks due to their extremely niche role and limited capabilities compared to warriors, you'll probably be getting most of this BiS tankadin gear as off-spec, assuming you're one of many Holy paladins in your guild.I'll list list the items here without description or where to get them as by this point I assume that you have access to AtlasLoot addon and know how to work your way around the Vanilla Gaming database.Once again, my itemization is based around stamina, mana regeneration, intellect, defense, block, and spell power. Keeping all of these traits in mind will help you itemize to become a super tankadin.Please note that this recommended gear isn’t necessarily meant to get you defense capped. Also feel free to use T 2 Judgement Set and T 2.5 Avenger Set (even Deathone!) in place in case you feel that you need more spell power and intellect rather than defense. Even ZG and AQ20 tanking gear is great if you wanna build some more bulkiness. Balance is key!

Items that have a next to them have Whataburger's Super Hot Fire Seal of Approval.

CONSUMABLES:Even though buffs from various classes can give you plenty of support in being able to tank, using certain consumables can be extremely helpful to have during engagements, especially when it comes to mana regeneration.

Major Mana PotionYou’re probably going to get low on mana during long fights, so it’s always useful to have one of these on standby, as without mana, you can’t cast your Consecrations, meaning you won’t be able to maintain aggro as well.

Major Healing PotionSince you’re tanking and a taking a bunch of damage, your healer may not always be able to keep up and you’ll end up getting close to dying. Having one of these ready can prevent you from dying and causing a wipe.

Brilliant Mana OilThe +12 MP5 from this con is very useful for reducing downtime between pulls and being avoiding going OOM during engagements.

Brilliant Wizard OilIf you think you’re fine on mana regen but find that your threat generation is still somewhat lacking, the +36 spell damage from this con can bump up your spells from holy damage abilities.

Flask of Distilled WIsdomSince tankadins are pretty big mana hogs, and if you’re pulling to spend the gold, then this con significantly improve your mana pool if you like using max rank abilities a bunch in dungeons.

Flask of Supreme PowerMaybe you want to do a Strath or Scholo speedrun or you have a couple of T3 mages and warlocks in your party. If you think don’t think your threat generation will be able to outpace that of other AoE casters, then I’d recommend using this con if you can afford to.

Flask of the TitansSince you’re obviously tanking and a taking a beating from a large number of adds, you can never go wrong with using this con, especially in high-damage instances such as Zul Gurub mobs, especially the Jindo trash, in which prot pallies shine. Also useful if you feel like you can tank a boss like Bloodlord Mandokir or something like that.

Updated 12/29/2015 12:33 CSTDense DynamiteAn excellent alternative to having Linken's Boomerang or Shard of the Fallen Star for pulling. Requires 250 engineering to use, but this is an extremely useful consumable to have for pulling large mobs because it's 5 yard AoE and high damage. Using this also has the added bonus of saving you an extra trinket slot for another trinket of your own choosing. Just make sure to stock up on a bunch of these if you're going to use these in dungeons.

STRATEGIES:

Soooo…. Now that you hopefully are well-geared enough to enter the world of AoE tanking, let’s get to the fun part where I sort of try to give my 2-cents on how to best utilize your abilities to bring all the boys to the yard. ADHD SummaryIf you don’t feel like the reading the rest of the strategy section because you’re a lazy bum, here you go.1. When you pull, time your Consecration so that all adds are on it.2. Use Holy Shield and Consecration regularly (downranking is fine) to keep up your block and threat generation.3. Use Seal of Righteousness and Judgement to get even more threat.4. Don’t die.5. Win.

The pull. As a rule of thumb, your goal in AoE tanking is to try to follow what I call the 5-second rule: Get aggro of all your mobs within 5 seconds. Since paladins have no taunt ability in Vanilla WoW, this makes the first five seconds of an engagement the most important part, as through personal experience, if you are not able to get agro of all the mobs in a pull within this time frame, the difficulty curve in AoE tanking during the fight will sharply risem making it harder to keep your party alive and kicking. So how do you want to start your pulls?

1. Before pulling, ALWAYS make sure you are within the casting range of your healers, otherwise you’ll go down as soon as you get aggro. Don’t be a Leroy Jenkins. Also make sure that you have Righteous Fury activated otherwise your aggro generation will be mediocre.

3. Now that you’ve pulled the mobs and begun the engagement, now is the time to get aggro. Cast Consecration when you think all the mobs will be caught in it while moving to you and your party. Caasting Greater Blessing of Wisdom on the mana users of your party will also help you get that initial aggro for most add.

4. Before or after you pop your first Consecration to try to get aggro of all the mobs, cast Holy Shield and Seal of Righteousness to prepare yourself for the actual AoE tanking phase following the pull.

5. If the mobs have any NPC’s that cast ranged abilities, you probably won’t be able to get aggro of all the mobs in one consencrate, but there are ways to work around this. LOS-pulling is very useful tactic that tankadins can use to influence the movement and positioning of mobs so that you can make the most of your first Consecration during your pull. LOS-pulling usually starts off with a body pull, then moving back to a point where the mobs don’t have LoS of you, such as behind a corner. This will cause all the mobs, including the ranged ones, to move you and your party hiding out of LoS, usually all moving together in a clump. Use this to your advantage and once they come around the corner, pop your Consecration and then you should hopefully have get aggro of both the melee and ranged mobs.

The tanking phaseAssuming that the pull went well, you now have aggro of all the mobs, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll stick with you if you just do nothing, so you should probably do something about it.This phase is pretty straightforward: just use your abilities to maintain aggro of adds, while learning of a few useful to tips to make sure that they’ll never leave your side no matter what and that they’ll always notice you.

1. Keep spamming Consecration, while making sure your mobs are always within the AoE of the spell. Since Consecration uses up a bunch of mana at max rank, it’s fine to downrank, especially if you have high spell damage that will compensate for the lower damage.

2. Also keep spamming Holy Shield. Not all attacks on you will be hits, some will be blocks, and that means that you will do even more damage the more you get hit over time. If you have Greater Blessing of Sanctuary buffed on you, this will another source of holy damage to every block that you make. It’s also fine to downrank your Holy Shield since that ability also eats up a bunch of mana, since what matters most is the increased 30% chance to block that greatly improves your survivability.

3. Remember how I mentioned that Redoubt would be useful way earlier in the guide? Do you also remember that I told you it’s okay to not be defense capped? Did you by any chance forget to accept Force Reactive Disk as your lord and savior? This is where they all come into play.

4. The great thing about not being defense capped while tanking mobs is that you’ll get crit every now and then? You must be thinking that I’m crazy for saying that, as the point of tanks is to avoid getting crit, at least on bosses. Well, everytime you get crit, you get the passive Redoubt Proc, which basically acts like a secondary Holy Shield that gives you an ADDITIONAL 30% BLOCK, and YES, THEY CAN STACK. This means that if you happen to have a Redoubt proc on you while Holy Shield is active, you’ll have over 60% block. Isn’t that sweet? If there’s no better way to put it, then what doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger.

5. That Redoubt proc sure does help make you tough to kill, but it seems to lacking some teeth, doesn’t it? Fear not, for this is where the magic of Force Reactive Disk enters the battle. EVERY BLOCK, you shit lightning everywhere around you for around 15-40 nature damage depending on your spellpower, with no limit to how many mobs it affects within 5 yards of you, unlike the 3-4 max of Thunderfury’s proc. This is basically the equivalent of an overpowered Holy Shield that passively activates every time you’re crit. Awesome!

6. Now, let’s say that you are defense capped at 440 Defense, which means you can’t get critically hit anymore by mobs, which at first sounds like your Redoubt becomes useless at this point.WRONGWhenever you’re sitting down, anytime you get hit with a melee attack, that melee attack AUTOMATICALLY BECOMES A CRITICAL HIT! How can you use this in battle? Easy! Just be a lazy bum and sit down in the middle of an engagement in order to be crit by a mob to activate the Redoubt proc and continue shitting lightning with your Force Reactive Disk!You can either press the ‘X’ key to sit down, or you can make a macro that has “/sit” which you can put in your castbar alongside your other abilities if you don’t like moving your fingers around too much on the keyboard.

7. If you somehow lose aggro of one or two mobs in your pack, you can use Judgement of Righteousness on your target to build a good amount of threat on them that will likely help you regain aggro. If the judgement itself is insufficient, keep whacking at it while Seal of Righteousness is active. Have Judgement of the Crusader up on the add if you wanna build even more threat on the target.

Crowd ControlIf an add gets loose and starts attacking your DPS and healer, fear not. Even though paladins don’t have a taunt ability like warriors, remember that your holy abilities generate huge amounts of threat which you can use sort of like a taunt to regain aggro through suddent threat generation. I prefer to cast a Hammer of Justice on the loose add first in order to keep them stunned then start meleeing them with Seal of Righteousness activated to start building threat on them, then before the stun ends, finish it off with a Judgement for that last extra bit of threat on them. This will usually be enough to help you regain threat on loose adds. Exorcism is also another great ability to use to regain aggro on loose adds, especially in Scholomance and Stratholme. Remember to keep up your Consecration and Holy Shield while trying to lasso back on loose adds to maintain your aggro on them.

Wrapping up.So you’ve managed not only to survive your first AoE tanking engagement, but you also managed to hold aggro on all of them while your party picked them down one by one. As some of the adds get low on health, they will try to run away which can lead to further unwanted chain pulling. Fear not, it’s hammer time! Just throw a Hammer of Wrath at any running mobs and that’ll usually keep them down for good. Just a reminder, this is not a definite guide on how to be a good AoE tankadin, just my opinion on how to best approach it based on several months of personal experience, and I’m still learning even more as I go on. If you have any suggestions or feedback on how I can improve this guide, feel free to let me know! I’m open to all criticism!

Another trinket that used to be popular with pally tanks is Linken's Boomerang. It's obviously not as good as Shard, however it is an easily obtainable quest reward and there are a lot of situations where body pulling is a terrible option, especially when you or your healer are in pre raid gear.

Also worth noting is that Vigilance Charm is not unique and is fairly easy to farm.

You can go around to like BWL if your guild lets you!Although be careful of fights which require CCs,consecration and FRD(best shield paladin) will break that immediately,and a few repair bots work good too.

You can go around to like BWL if your guild lets you!Although be careful of fights which require CCs,consecration and FRD(best shield paladin) will break that immediately,and a few repair bots work good too.

Correct. When I use Whataburger for AoE tanking in BWL, I use him for getting the whelp aggro in the Supression Room and also the get aggro on the gobllin packs and keep them one place so the caster AoE can kill them faster. Another great place for a tankadin is ZG, especially for the Jindo trash mages and warlocks there die easily if they get aggro.

When it comes to using FRD though in dungeons and raids, I always bring at least two since my first one usually breaks.

You can go around to like BWL if your guild lets you!Although be careful of fights which require CCs,consecration and FRD(best shield paladin) will break that immediately,and a few repair bots work good too.

you are a lucky guy to tank as a paladin in 40 man raids,its kinda fun tho won't deny

Correct. When I use Whataburger for AoE tanking in BWL, I use him for getting the whelp aggro in the Supression Room and also the get aggro on the gobllin packs and keep them one place so the caster AoE can kill them faster. Another great place for a tankadin is ZG, especially for the Jindo trash mages and warlocks there die easily if they get aggro.

When it comes to using FRD though in dungeons and raids, I always bring at least two since my first one usually breaks.